Winner of the last duel on the value of the Canadian Senate was Laila Yuile with 64%.

This week’s topic:

Is the recent B.C. budget really a Liberal budget — or an NDP-style one?

Premier Christy Clark — who still hasn’t been elected to that title by voters — may have taken a couple of ideas from the opposition in the 2013 budget, but those tax hikes hardly make this an NDP-style budget.

This budget is in keeping with the BC Liberals’ playbook of reducing costs on the backs of those least able to afford it, a skill honed under a decade of Gordon Campbell’s leadership….

Read the rest of this column, and vote for the winner of this week’s Duel at:

7 Responses to This week’s column for 24Hrs Vancouver: Cutting services to most vulnerable a typical Liberal tactic

And workers here too are suffering. We all know there are some who fudge to receive benefits, but certainly a huge majority of workers should be going through rehab to return to work. But worksafe in BC is not about the workers or for the workers. Another group (not the front line worker bee either) making decisions on behalf of the corporations/companies.
I heard of one company telling a hurt employee not to report his injury, they would look after him, fix him up. Never came about. Fortunately others told him to report the injury which was done. It’s all about the companies’ insurance rates rising when an injury is reported. Shameful.
Another department hit hard by the lieberals – suffering and hurt employees.

Great topic today Laila given the news out of Europe and the US about debt; too much that is.
For your readers to know, the credit rating agency S&P advised, in a public report two years ago, that all Canadian Provinces were taking on too much debt.

It also advised that the recommended course of action come budget time was to increase revenues and decrease amounts for education and health care,
So right now and for the past couple of years our provincial budgets were not crafted in BC but somewhere like New York or Toronto.

A year ago the unaudited financial statement by the BC Finance Department showed a long-term debt of $50 billion. ( I had to put this in bold for readers- ly)

It also showed a further liability (Credit card type debt) of $20 billion.

What was not shown were the undisclosed “Contract” liabilities that were featured in a September 2011 Auditor General’s Report totalling at the time $80.1 billion. The Auditor General reported in September of 2012 that this “contractual” debt was $96.374 billion as at April 2012. It takes little imagination that when the “cooked” books show financial results for fiscal 2012/13 the total of all will be close to $200 billion.

The cost of carrying this level of debt has pushed down the priority for all social programs much in the way S&P directed.

The provincial budget committee were asked to increase taxation using a “progressive” taxation strategy.

Because the need was blindingly obvious the presented provincial budget did indicate something was to be done but not nearly enough given the enormaty of the debt hole our government has dug for us all.

All my pre-election reading is resulting in a giant ARGH. What BC needs is pretty obvious: undo the regressive tax scheme put in by Gordon W. Bush, knock the LNG royalty rate up to 40% or more, launch an inquiry into P3s, do some serious reform of municipal elections and financial responsibilities…

…and, yet, suggesting any one of those will send the media heads into a frenzy about how we’re going to make all the rich job-creating land barons flee for Alberta’s flat-tax pastures. Hell, even saying “Gordon W. Bush” is probably enough for the kill switch. Instead it’s just pounding infuriating condescending NOISE from people who think that $250,000 is “middle income” (IT ISN’T).

-sigh- Some days, I feel so isolated that it’s as if all I can do is throw rocks at the Minister of Everything’s office (he’s my MLA, his office is right by the bus stop I use to get just about anywhere) and hope that gets his attention.

Then we also have Harper’s E.I. police banging on Canadians doors, to see if we are naughty or nice. Meanwhile. 300 BC miners applied for 200 BC mining jobs, Harper and Christy permitted China to sue for. Same at the tar sands. Looks to me, there will still be a lot of Canadians on E.I. for quite some time.

The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals, thieved and sold most of BC’s assets and resources. The BC Liberals outrageous salary’s and gold plated pensions, are not sustainable either. Campbell had given his useless self, a $60.000 per year salary hike. Then the HST was forced onto the BC people, a huge burden on people struggling to keep their homes. Nor, do we forget Harper’s part in the dismantling of BC.

Christy has bumped up the cost of living, once again. The BC Liberals theft and waste of our tax dollars, has of course fallen on the people of BC, yet again. Because of the stupid smart meters, my hydro bill has doubled. My Son’s hydro bill was, $650.00. I have no clue, how I am going to pay my taxes. If I were one of the wealthy, I wouldn’t have to pay taxes, now would I?

Of course we will have the services we pay through the nose for slashed. However, the BC Liberals, keep right on taking that tax from us. Harper does exactly the same.

I agree. This is a typical Campbell/Clark BC Liberal underhanded tactic.